By Sue-Ann Wayow
MORE than 86,000 Salary Relief Grants (SRGs) were distributed after applications for Covid-19 relief last year.
This according to Minister of Finance Colm Imbert in a press conference on Friday.
He said of 86,196 SRGs distributed so far, 7,000 applicants were yet to be paid.
Imbert said, “Of the total of approximately 93,000, we have paid out over 90% of those persons who applied and were deemed and found to be eligible.”
He said it would not be accurate to say that a huge number of persons who applied for such grants since last year did not receive compensation.
Of the remaining who did not yet receive payment, they were persons who did not have existing bank accounts or whose accounts were not functioning.
“We have to pay these people by pre-loaded debit card,” Imbert said.
He added that of the 7,000, 6,139, records have been forwarded to First Citizens Bank for the preparation of those debit cards and 5,000 cards have already been generated. Those cards will be delivered via TTPOST.
Imbert said he was informed that more than 1,000 cards were delivered to TTPOST to be distribute to the individuals.
“Within the next week or so, we would have cleared out all 93,000 of the applications for the Salary Grant that were found to be valid,” the minister said.
